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Wednesday, March 24, 2010

WarlocksImmolate: The damage-over-time component of this spell can now produce critical strikes.

Life Tap: This spell no longer scales with spirit, and instead scales with spell power.

Talents - AfflictionDark Pact: This ability no longer requires line-of-sight with the summoned demon, and the range has been increased from 30 yards to 100 yards.

Talents - DemonologyDemonic Pact: This effect now has a 45-second duration, up from 12 seconds, and a 20-second internal cooldown.

There's some interesting stuff happening in the most recent patch. The important thing for warlocks (and perhaps casters in general) to note is that Life Tap no longer scales with spirit.

This is good news in that the warlock T10 set is completely devoid of spirit. This is ... iffy news in that all the spirit on my gear now solely exists for Fel Armor and Glyph of Life Tap.

It's implications reach farther than that, however. It seems to me that this is a significant step towards "no more spirit for non-healers". I'm starting get very excited about the ways in which Cataclysm will affect game play. Not needing spirit will probably only be a drop in the bucket.

Over at Memento, our recruitment posts won us another member. Dumm brings us a warrior tank. With Batra on hiatus, it's definitely nice to know that our tank slots won't suffer. We're tackling Ulduar again tomorrow night. With Dumm in our ranks we will either pug a dps or 9-man it.

Also, a priest has shown some interest in our small guild. We may be able to call our 10-man roster complete soon. Excited? You bet I am. However, I'm starting to think I use that word too often. I am... eager? That could work.

Monday, March 22, 2010

There's been a lot going on, both with Marariel specifically and with Memento.

First, our recruitment posts netted us a new healer. We were very much excited to welcome Shomoru aboard. He's a druid and, despite some crappy internet issues, has been quite the addition.

The negative side (there is always one) is that Shomoru is not available to raid on Tuesday nights. So instead of having Tuesday progression nights and Sunday goofing around time we decided to switch to Thursday progression nights and Tuesday goofing around time. Makes my schedule on Fridays a little less fun, but I will live with it.

Mara abandoned her Destro spec in favor of the currently higher dps Affliction spec. I've been pleasantly surprised by how much fun it's been. Plus, I missed my felpuppy. It's been good to have him back. Competing with Sen (stupid arcane DPS god) upon occasion has been well worth it as well.

Sen, Pengu, and I also hopped a ICC run this week. We had to leave after two bosses, but it was still totally awesome. It always makes me happy to be doing something that some of the other members of the guild say "we don't have high enough dps for that."

Tuesday we did OS, Onyxia, and Vault of Archavon. All totally awesome. Batra tanked OS for us, and I thought he did remarkably well. VoA had a particularly happy surprise for me: Gloves of Future Awesome. I'm a few scant frosties away from 2pcT10 and I am unreasonably excited.

Thursday was a little less awesome. We started our progression of Ulduar. But Shomoru had so much suck internet that we ended up pugging two healers. Worst idea ever. One of the healers I had seen in a previous pug raid. He's a complete jerk and the guy he brought with him wasn't much better. It didn't really make for such a fun night.

Monday, March 15, 2010

I was questing with Aioka yesterday, turning in some Bone Fragments in Light's Hope Chapel when it hit me. This was what end-game was all about several years ago. Instead of rep-grinding with the Sons of Hodir, it was rep-grinding with the Argent Dawn. And instead of running Pit of Saron and Halls of Lightning for your next cool drop, it was Stratholme and Scholomance, Blackwing Lair and Dire Maul. You can still get attuned to Naxxramas: the level 60, 40 man raid. This blew my mind.

Honestly, who in their right mind ever went to Dire Maul when they didn't have to? That place haunts my dreams. Aioka's Random Dungeon Finder is broken, because every time (no, really. every time.) she gets put in Dire Maul - West.

Now, I've mentioned I'm a post-BC kid. Wrath is the first time I've been able to participate in whatever was currently "end-game". So, it's true that I'm not (wasn't) as intimately familiar with the older dungeons as the new ones. Except Scholomance, but that's a different story.

But I'm not retarded. So I did a little research and figured out how to at least finish Dire Maul - West. The guildies were awesome enough to get Aioka the key from Dire Maul - East so I didn't have to worry about that any more. Although, seriously, what is it with Blizzard putting noobs in placed they can't get to? I also randomed my way into the side entrance of Stratholme when no one in the group had a key. I got skillz.

Despite this, I still haven't been able to complete Dire Maul - West. Because, even though I've explained to each and every group I've been with that you have to wipe out the 5 mana pylons and then go to the final boss NO ONE LISTENS.

The warrior tank continues to wander around willy nilly killing whatever strikes his fancy at the time being. Then the dk dps sends his ghoul after everything in sight, even though the rest of the group is still drinking their mana juice.

And I know fail-pug stories are a dime a dozen. But honestly, I know how to get through the dungeon. I'm even willing to lead the group through the dungeon, while keeping the clueless tank, the idiot dk, and the over-aggroing lock alive. (Have I mentioned how much I love Power Word: Shield?) But to have a group completely and totally fail to listen to basic instructions? That's as sad as it gets. I even used small words.

On the positive side of things, Aioka hit 60. I could chose to walk away from Vanilla End Game and enjoy myself in the Outland dungeons. I would probably level faster. But I'm masochistic enough to want to finish the quests and dungeons from vanilla that are still littering my quest log.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

There was no post on Monday because I wanted to wait until I had something to say that wasn't: "This one guy in my guild did something that I considered to be full of douchebaggery and it hurt my feelings. Wah."

Especially since blogging about one's guild has been such a hot topic recently.

So, this post was inspired by a situation that a fellow blogger went through with her guild. The important, thought provoking post can be read here while all the details can be read about on her blog Righteous Orbs.

Many bloggers feel that keeping their in-game persona and their blog persona separate is necessary for the well being of themselves and their guild. Many don't advertise their blog to their guild for fear that something they say will be bring down the WRATH of the guild. Or, alternatively, that someone in the guild may receive an undeserved reputation because of what has been written about them in a blog.

Thus far, and from this perspective, I have been remarkably rude in regards to my blog. I make no attempt at being anonymous. I will proudly tell you who I am, where to find me, and which other people I'm likely to be spending my time with in-game. I frequently discuss our (mis)adventures in Azeroth. I don't have any qualms about stating who failed at what and when. Although, I do think I need to update the frequency in which I include myself in 'X failed at Y'.

If I didn't tell some of my guild members about my blog, my readership would be 0 (instead of 3). And I have no problems if these guildies feel like sharing the link with others. There is only one member of my guild who I might worry about offending. And he knows I love him irl, despite our frequent disagreements in Azeroth.

So my question, essentially, is: Am I failing at blogging? I recognize that, at the very least, I should ask my guildies permission before I start discussing them in such a publicly available venue. Instead of inviting some of my guildies to look in on my little corner of the interweb, should I have remained anonymous? How much does the situation change when your guildies are people you know and see everyday?

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

More importantly, Memento has gained a healer! Another of Ann's friends has opted to grace our sad corner of the wow-universe with his presence. Penguin brings us a rogue and a paladin. And we are super excited.

We had to pug two dps (Es was out studying for a test - le sigh) and a second healer. We had a few difficulties to start out with. The first healer we pugged was one of those "gogogogogo" people. Our guild is too relaxed and nooby for that. Rush us and we'll probably die. Which we did. After which that healer left.

The second healer ragequit on us over a loot dispute. Remember, this is Naxx loot we're talking about here. You can buy better gear now. And gear you can't buy is only an instance away.

Honestly, though, with this second healer I probably could have handled the situation better. I have, for whatever reason, been assigned the Master Looter position twice now. Which I don't mind, but this guy probably did.

Memento has been going into Naxx with the assumption that no one actually needs the gear that is going to drop. If it turns out that's not the case, all someone has to say is "Hey, I really need that." Anyway, the healer did not appreciate one of the pug DPS rolling on everything.

The third healer stuck with us. Did appreciate. We did the Military, Arachnid, and Construct quarters. And then Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad. It was very late by the time we finished. But it was very awesome, none the less. Except I spent the vast majority of the fight with Kel'Thuzad dead. The very first Frost Blast got me. Still, overall I was impressed with how little we died.

We wiped on Razuvious a couple of times. Mostly because Militia was the only one who had ever done the mind control thing.

Not everyone has all of the completion achievements for Naxx, so we'll probably have to do it again at some point. Plus, I'm not sure having our tank and one other person survive Heigan should really count as completion. That Safety Dance achievement is a long way away.

Up next is the Obsidian Sanctum. Some of the guildies think we can complete both OS and the Eye of Eternity in the same night. Well, we'll see!

Monday, March 1, 2010

Mara is officially on the purps train. No more blues left in her gear! Very exciting. I got my Nevermelting Ice Crystal from H PoS. As far as I can tell, it's been pretty amazing. More spellpower and extra crits on periodic damage? Yes, please.

Sunday night guild night was not exceptionally exciting. I spent some time with my priest. Aioka has heirloom items now, so she's rocking her discipline spec and mostly leveling through the random dungeon finder. I ran Blackrock Depths with her yesterday and got an amazing group. Fast-pulling tank, but I suppose that's what I get for saying 'Go at your pace'. Healing is fun, but kinda stressful.

Then Ann, Sen, and I hopped into a Black Temple pug with some other 70-80s. That's always an interesting trip. A bunch of post-BC kiddies running around Black Temple with NO IDEA where they are going or what they're supposed to be doing. And that totally includes me.

This also went remarkably better than the last time Sen and I tried this. We made it past Gorefiend to wipe spectacularly on the Reliquary of Souls. Hello, Devourer of Souls v.1. Bit of a mind-trip really.

Tomorrow night should (crosses fingers) be our second attempt at Naxx. I'm very excited.

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About Me

I am a laid-back person who enjoys video games and spending time with friends. I like to create things; be it new characters, blogs or websites, or stories. I am an instructor of computer science. This allows me to bang my head against interesting problems on a daily basis and creates a continual need for caffeine and WoW.